The reception to Gamespots gameplay video is surprisingly negative and hostile towards the game.

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Maybe not surprisingly so, I suspect taking away the good parts of Saints Row and keeping the bad parts won't necessarily make people immediately giddy.
What I consider the good parts was character customization, open world and sandbox elements.
The bad parts were always the shooting / action part of the game.
This game to me looks to focus on the bad parts of Saint's Row instead of the good parts, a very odd direction to go -- One I can't explain.
Not sure about the over-simplified art style either, there is a fine line between minimizing and going to simple, considering Volition is not a indie studio I can't approve of minimizing further than SR3 which seems to be the case.